Hope College set to buy Holland Municipal Stadium

It will take time to work out the details, but plans are for Holland Municipal Stadium to be sold to Hope College before the fall, with improvement work beginning this summer to include synthetic turf.

It will take time to work out the details, but plans are for Holland Municipal Stadium to be sold to Hope College before the fall, with improvement work beginning this summer to include synthetic turf.

In June, the city of Holland, Hope College and Holland Public Schools announced a joint effort to form a co-ownership of the stadium. With that in place, the three entities together hoped to be able to draw up a master plan for the facility and start making needed improvements on the aging field and grounds.

“Everything we were trying to accomplish was extremely cumbersome,” Assistant City Manager Greg Robinson said about the proposed partnership.

Now, the plan is to move toward a sale of the facility.

Reasons to sell

Besides the cumbersome processes involved in three-way ownership, there are other reasons to sell. The city and Holland Public Schools have limited resources to deal with the aging facility and the tasks necessary to undertake the partnership.

And the appraisal came in lower than expected at $910,000, Robinson said, adding that there are very few similar municipal stadiums with which to compare it. He also said that though the appraisal will play a role in what the stadium is sold for, it doesn’t mean it will be that final amount, particularly because Hope College will start work on improvements this summer.

The plan is to have synthetic turf in by the time the first fall football game is scheduled.

Because the stadium still is owned by the city, the city council approved Wednesday a synthetic turf funding agreement with the college and bids for the construction management. Hope College will shoulder the estimated $850,000 cost.

The three entities have been in continued talks. A usage agreement stipulates Hope will have first priority for usage, Holland Public Schools second priority and the city third priority.

With the fall football schedule set, Holland Public Schools will play the first game on the new field this fall.

Not without loss

The sale is not without casualties.

Holland parks department employee Jon Crampton has taken care of the stadium since 1995. With the sale and the city facing a budget crunch, his departure seemed obvious.

Crampton has worked for the city of Holland since 1986, working summers in a variety of locations. He was hired full-time by the parks department April 15, 1995.

“It was something I’d been trying to do for a long time. I have the education, and there were other opportunities but this was the job I chose to do,” he said.

Crampton took care of the stadium full-time during football season. In the winter, he plowed sidewalks and set up the ice skating rinks, among other jobs.

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Now, he and four others laid off were given 90 days of severance pay.

Those who took the offer still will be eligible for full unemployment, City Manager Ryan Cotton said.

Meanwhile, Crampton knows he is facing choices and is holding out hope that Hope College will consider bringing him on to take care of the field that has been in his care for so many years.